Classics, dwarves, and world war 2 planes

Hello folks;

Well there has been a lack of gaming news as of late – Youtube fiasco aside. Thus some of you might wonder: “what is our fine artist doing these days when news is short in supply?” The answer is War Thunder, Dragon Age Origins, and Evil Genius (in no specific order). Let us begin with War Thunder: this pseudo world war 2 combat simulator – I say pseudo because there is debate amongst the simulation community as to whether or not War Thunder is a “real” simulator for planes, and soon to be tanks and ships – has eaten up quite a bit of time over the past few weeks. Flying planes within War Thunder, as that is the only thing a player can do at the moment until the release of the open beta for the ground combat module, is surprisingly easy to learn but challenging to master. Combat is fluid, and unless you are experiencing problems – like how the recent patch makes my fps drop like a dive bomber – the game ultimately is a must play for those of you interested in world war 2 era military hardware. Now the tutorial is quite flushed out, and does not take too long to complete. Afterwards the player will be able to immediately join a game in which they will be matched up to the tier of planes they are piloting, and then placed into a hair-raising match where aces dominate the skies and ground vehicles are piloted by AIs because nobody wants to feel the bite of 6x 7.62mm browning on a P36G Hawk: I fly these lovely ladies by the way.

Downsides so far: no ground module, and no naval module. Judging from the Wikipedia page however, it will take them at least a couple more years to finish the naval module, and a good 8 months to release the ground warfare module. Therefore if you are looking for tank combat, stick to World of Tanks for the time being – or you can be like a man and try Red Orchestra 2 where you command a crew in a single tank, and can switch between the various roles to get the feel of the battlefield when trapped in a metal box.

Now onto the 2nd item of the list: Dragon Age Origins. The second game in the series I never really got into; with the whole being trapped in a city-state mildly off-putting. Yet the first installment is so far quite enjoyable to say the least. Choosing from a list of 3 races, and subsequent classes and background story, the character feels alive despite their lack of voice acting. Now thus far the dwarf in which I am currently playing through has been left at the tower where the circle of magi reside, but even this early on in the game the world feels alive and the sense of desperation really sinks in even though the universe is entirely fictional. This sense of immersion is probably why a lot of people enjoyed their time with Dragon Age Origins, though any RPG that is worth their weight in salt and gold is able to do just that. More info will come as I play through this, so stay tuned for that.

Finally Evil Genius: this top-down strategy game is quite the classic piece. After I discovered gog.com this was the first game I picked up off of the digital distribution platform, and it brings back memories – though I only played the demo back then because I was a kid and had no money. Now the game itself can be dull at times when you have to go to the world domination map in order to gather resources, recruit new henchmen, and carry out acts of notoriety. However the base management aspect is quite satisfying, and the overall look and feel of the game does not give the impression that it is an old veteran per se. Watching the minions eat their meals, perform their tasks, and interrogate hostages has a strange entertainment value towards it: being a god to these sprites really is “the best feeling on earth (humor intended).” Still available via gog, it is a game worth checking out.

Alright folks, that concludes this little update on what has been happening on my end of the spectrum. Hopefully as time passes I will dig through both my Steam wishlist, and my gog wishlist, and bring you guys a good line up of classic and semi-modern games for you to “consume like the black soulless pits that you are (actually you are all nice people, I joke, I joke).” Thanks for reading, and I will see you next time.